NILES Â? With the mercury straining today to escape double digits, it might seem it would take a toll on sculptors and visitors alike at the annual Hunter Ice Festival downtown. Guess again. Â?Anything 20 below (zero) and above isnÂ?t too bad,Â?Â? said Cincinnati master carver Jeff Stahl as he transformed his ice block at East Main and Fourth streets into the Â?Guppy from Hell.Â?Â? He said the temperature was 40 degrees below zero last year in Fairbanks, Alaska, when he participated in the world ice-carving championships.

Ice is brittle in such cold, he said, making it difficult to freeze pieces together.

Â?When you introduce water, it shatters the block,Â?Â? he said.

Across the street, PittsburghÂ?s Richard Bubin, known as Â?the worldÂ?s fastest ice carverÂ?Â? for the 61 sculptures he once turned out in less than 4Â½ hours, said the coldest conditions heÂ?d ever encountered were in St. Paul, Minn. The mercury there dipped to 50 below zero.

Â?When youÂ?d lay your tools down, theyÂ?d freeze up,Â?Â? he said.

TodayÂ?s reading of roughly 10 degrees above zero was Â?perfectÂ?Â? for ice carving, Bubin said, as he applied the finishing touches to a piece he titled Â?Moonlite Blues.Â?Â?

A block to the west, PhiladelphiaÂ?s Peter Slavin, yet another master carver (the festival features six), enlisted assistance from Niles resident Larry Simpson as he fused a piece on what appeared to be an upright guitar or cello. Simpson laughed when told his helping hand Â? the piece froze in place in just seconds Â? qualified him as a master carverÂ?s assistant.

Simpson said he has attended each of NilesÂ? four ice festivals.

Â?I like it all. I like this weather ... the cold, a little snowy,Â?Â? he said.

Hot chocolate was poles apart from the ice cream, patterned after the kind turned out by the Hunter Ice & Ice Cream Co. in the early 1900s, that festival volunteers served up farther down the street. BremenÂ?s Pam Pal was one of the boothÂ?s first customers.

She said she liked the festival for its sculptures, but the ice cream ran a close second.

Her boyfriend, Mike Nemeth, of Edwardsburg, said he was heading back to the ice cream booth to buy more.

Â?I had some but lost it,Â?Â? he said, motioning toward Pal, who didnÂ?t deny gulping it down.

Another festival visitor, South BendÂ?s Bruce Rufer, said he, too, was headed for the ice cream booth. Asked about the cold and snowy weather, he said he loved it.